The Beginning of Us
by PsychoBrunette
Summary: Katniss and Peeta begin their family kind of mushy later conflict... with Gale. Katniss is the ferocious victim of horrible mood swings and Peeta terrorizes innocent fruit and the power of food conquers all bad feelings
1. You Make The Nightmares Go Away

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters or any of the characters in my fan fictions I am in pure and utter awe of their respectful authors.**

**No haters please. And don't yell at me for not working on Fighting Destiny those of you who read both Sisters Grimm and Hunger Games.**

**You have to guess whose POV this starts out in its fairly easy.**

He was having the dreams again. The dreams that never repeated themselves. The dreams that started off as memories but twisted themselves into night mares. The dreams that never seemed right.

It had started off as so many of them did, he was walking through the forest, the forest in which so many had died and it had seemed almost peaceful. And then they came running at him horrible mutations that each seemed to have the face of one of the other contestants. He ran lungs bursting to the giant cornucopia that glinted in the sun. he made it to the top panting, and that's when he saw her. She was beautiful, long dark braided hair flying behind her she ran behind the mutants urging them on with her long whip. It seemed a part of her that whip but he knew it wasn't her weapon of choice. And as he saw her egging on those mutations who so clearly wanted his death, he felt that somehow this wasn't right. That this wasn't what had happened. That somehow his memories had gotten jumbled up. And he felt for a moment a phantom of a memory tugging at the back of his mind and he saw the girl so beautiful crouched next to him shooting arrow after arrow with a fierce determination on her face. And he heard the tortured scream of the boy he had forgotten was there. He glanced away for a second, but when he turned back the faint image of the girl was gone. He sat there crouching as he listened to the mutants hungrily devour the boy below he watched as they ran off, and moments later the boy's image and name flashed on the screen. Some part of him still thought that this wasn't right, and he saw a faint image of the boy mangled beyond recognition crawl out and silently plead. And the darkly beautiful girl shot him. He shook his head and the images went away. He sat there waiting for something to happen. And the girl climbed up the side so much easier than he had done. As she stood over him, some part of him wanted to cry out, explain that this wasn't right, this wasn't how it had happened. But then she smiled, a cold, cruel, calculating smile that he knew didn't belong on her face. But that smile wiped everything away, that smile made him think of blood and roses, blood and roses. And as the girl advanced on him he began to scream, a horrible mind curling scream that could make anyone want to cry and curl up in a ball. He screamed and suddenly woke up; he was in a dark, familiar bedroom, two small, muscular, tanned arms encircling him a kind voice cooing that it was going to be okay. For a minute he thought of his mother and he looked at her face. It was the girl, the darkly beautiful girl. And he didn't know why but he suddenly felt angry at her. And he choked her large muscular hands closed around her throat. He watched as she convulsed and he suddenly let go, she had stabbed him. Just a small prick but enough to shock him and it made him angry. Before he could grab her again she took his face in her hands and kissed him with a passion that could only come from love. And in that moment he remembered. This was Katniss who he had loved since he was small. Katniss who had protected him when he failed to protect her. Katniss who he loved unconditionally and who he now knew loved him back. Katniss who he had just tried to kill.

He pulled away and sobbed into her shoulder muttering how sorry he was how much he loved her. She cradled him soothing him, "It's alright Peeta. It's not your fault. I know what Snow did too you. I still love you don't worry Peeta." And she kissed him again on the lips and he kissed back and the tears came again and he sobbed himself back to sleep as she continued to kiss him. Kiss his forehead, his eyes, and once softly on the lips before she fell asleep with him, each encircled in the other's arms. Peeta didn't have any more nightmares that night he didn't dream at all.

He woke up the next morning to soft whimpering. He was still holding Katniss and she was clutching him tightly eyes closed lips quivering. He knew automatically she was having nightmares and he pulled her closer gently kissing her. She stopped whimpering immediately and she slowly woke up.

"Hey," he whispered gently to him, "you all right?"

"I'm fine now." she shuddered off the dreams; "I'm going to go make breakfast." She got out of the bed and walked to the kitchen. Buttercup rubbed against her legs begging for food. Katniss sighed and poured him some food. She got started with a simple breakfast of oatmeal and fruit, with sliced bread. As she sat down with Peeta she sighed and fiddled with the ring on her left hand.

Peeta kissed her, "What?"

"Nothing I just thought you would be better by now. You wake up screaming almost every night."

He stroked the bruises on her neck, "Why do you insist on being there every night even though you know I'll hurt you. I can control myself in the day when I look into your eyes and see the love. I see the real you, and I know you would never hurt me. I love my Katniss." He kissed her again.

"You make the nightmares go away.'

"What?"

"You asked me why I stay. I get nightmares and you make them better."

"Well you make my nightmares go away too." By this time they had made it onto the couch and were sipping coffee while watching the birds. "Hey Katniss?"

"Hmm?" she said imagining what it would be like to be a bird.

"Remember a year or so ago? When you said you loved me and we said we wanted to start a family but I should tell you when I was ready? I'm ready now and I think we are. If we wait until I can go a week without trying to kill you, do you think it would be okay?"

"Of course Peeta I love you!" Katniss kissed him deeply.

A month later Peeta had gone a month without trying to kill Katniss. The nightmares had stopped completely. That was when they finally began the life of a married couple.

**This was originally a one shot but now it's going to be at least a couple of chapters so yeah. Please review!**


	2. Your Mood Swings Frighten Me

**Okay I haven't updated this is forever so sorry : ( I'm trying to concentrate on Fighting Destiny so I got a little caught up in that but I decided since that is now being regularly updated and I want to start a new fic that's been eating away at me for a while now I should probably update this. So yeah.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the hunger games if I did Cinna wouldn't have died cause one I would never be able to kill Cinna and two if I did my friend would strangle me.**

**Oh and this is set about two, three months after the last chapter.**

NO PARTICULAR POV

It was a beautiful, typical morning outside the single house in District 12. The birds were chirping, the soft wind was stirring the ash slightly and everything was quiet.

Inside the single house in District 12 however things were not so typical.

Downstairs in the kitchen Peeta was baking as usual it soothed him and he felt it was a tribute to his family now dead and buried. They would have wanted for him to keep baking as Katniss always reminded him even when he broke down in the middle of the floor sobbing after a particularly hard memory of his father hit him.

So he was baking, cinnamon and nut bread, while the sausage cooked and the grease hissed. This of course was typical of a normal morning but upstairs was not.

Upstairs in that single house in District 12, in the master bedroom to be specific, Katniss was curled up in the large comfy bed covers pulled over her head. She was currently debating with herself whether or not she should leave the nice warm cocoon of covers. Her reasons not to leave were that it was warm in the bed and outside the covers the crisp, fall morning air would be cold on her bare skin. On the other hand the smells of breakfast were getting awfully tempting and her robe was a mere two feet away on the stone floor. Finally the smells of breakfast won her over and she launched out of bed landing on her robe. She pulled her arms through the sleeves and walked down the stairs, pondering.

You see Katniss was usually up early, very early. She liked to hunt as the sun came up. She would bring her latest kills into the house put them in the cold room and then go back out to collect herbs. Then while Peeta made breakfast she would categorize and separate the herbs for the other districts and the Capitol after putting away the herbs she and Peeta needed. Then she would prepare whatever meat she had caught again separating some for the other districts. Then she would clean her bows.

And after all of that she and Peeta would eat the delicious food Peeta had prepared.

But today she had slept in. She had woken up with a tug of normality at dawn as usual but quickly snuffed the spark of consciousness and tumbled back to sleep. She had then slept soundly as Peeta got up. And she was an extremely light sleeper. Like a cat Peeta often joked before she shot him a glare and he shut up before she could remember the nickname that sounded like cat.

But this time she had slept in past dawn, past Peeta waking up, past the colossal noise Peeta made in the kitchen. It was fifth day in a row. It felt like her energy was depleting.

She walked down the wood stairs, noting that she needed to clean them later. She did a lot of that lately, cleaning because she wasn't waking up early enough to hunt. Luckily there was a whole cold room full of meat and enough to give when the District supply train finally came.

She walked into the kitchen full of savory smells and Peeta smiled at her sleepy face.

"Morning," he said engulfing her in a warm hug and cupping her chin to pull her face up for a sweet, soft kiss.

"Morning," she muttered back into his lips, "you taste like cinnamon."

He broke the kiss and laughed pulling back a chair for her, pouring a cup of hot chocolate and setting the mug in her hands. "It's the bread and you slept in late again."

"I don't know why, I just feel tired a lot lately," she yawned and then added, "and hungry."

Peeta laughed and set a plate of sweet bread and sausage in front of her digging a fork into his own plate. "Well eat up then," he chewed and then voiced a thought; "maybe you have a cold or something. Colds always make me feel tired."

Katniss shrugged and dug into her food wolfishly, as Peeta did the same. She quickly finished and wiped the grease of her chin with the back of her hand laughing as Peeta tried to drink his cocoa with a mouth full of food. "Isn't it wonderful that we still have the same manners as we did that first day on the train? Except now we don't stuff ourselves to the point of popping."

Peeta nodded, "Effie would be so ashamed of us. 'You're revolutionary heroes for goodness sakes can't you chew with your mouths closed?'" he said in a high pitched impression of the brightly colored woman.

Katniss laughed along with her husband before her stomach made a sound of discomfort and the back of her throat felt funny. She knew what was coming next and barely made it to the kitchen sink before her breakfast came up.

"Aww," she said after wiping her face up, "none of the remedies have helped. Wait I didn't throw up last night's dinner!" she had been having the problem of throwing up her meals all week and tried a different remedy every day and so far none had worked.

"Actually that remedy didn't work either. You most have thrown up last night's dinner in your sleep because I stepped in it this morning and had to clean it up." Peeta looked nervous and slightly disgusted.

Nervous because the very impulsive Katniss had been extremely impulsive as of late and the random mood swings didn't exactly help the matter. You never knew what she was going to do, or what time she would do it, or what mod trigger her. Yesterday she had flung a plate at Peeta's head because he had picked flowers for her and accidently picked a few prim roses. He had ducked of course, reflexes finely tuned by the Games

And disgusted because… yeah well… eww.

But instead of throwing china Katniss slumped her shoulders and her face developed a disappointed look.

'Oh crap' Peeta thought in horror she was going to cry and the tears were worse than the plates.

"Maybe you should call you mother," he cried out before the waterworks started, "I'm sure she'll know exactly what remedy to use."

She brightened instantly, "You're right!" she cried before skipping off to the phone.

Peeta pondered this for a moment; Katniss skipping, he had always thought Katniss would only ever skip away from the bloodied mangled body of someone who had crossed her.

"So tell me if I've got this right, mood swings, throwing up every morsel of food you eat, drowsiness, and random bursts of hunger?" a soft motherly voice filled Katniss' ear.

She nodded once before remembering she was on the phone and saying, "Yep."

The motherly voice turned into a high pitch squeal, "Katniss that's wonderful! I'm going to be a grandmother! You're going to be a mother! Oh dear go easy on your children, it's your fault if they turn out bad."

"Wait what? A mother? You mean I'm pregnant? That's not poss… never mind. But how do you know? Wait never mind on that too."

"Oh darling this is wonderful! I'm going to catch the next train to District 12 bye bye now!"

Katniss had almost forgotten how fast her mother could talk, but never mind that she slammed the phone to the wall and directed a glare so fierce the innocent bystanders ran away screaming expecting the world to end at her beloved hubby, and recently discovered father of her unborn child. He was currently walking into the room nonchalantly munching an apple unsuspecting of the death glare that was Katniss.

"So what did your mom say?" he started unaware of the danger that is until he saw his wife's face, "Ahh! The death glare! It's back! RUN FR YOUR LIVES! Save yourself!" he chucked the apple through the doorway into the kitchen.

Katniss pounced on Peeta, tackling him to the ground, clutching his shirt color and leaning close to him to hiss, "You got me pregnant you great buffoon." It was scarily quiet as Peeta knew not to say anything and almost went cross eyed watching Katniss' teeth; she bit.

"Um, I'm sorry?" Peeta said cautiously testing the mood. Katniss glared at him a while longer before huffing away muttering, you better be, under her breath.

Peeta was suddenly filled with fear, fear of revenge.

**Ooooo cliffhanger hahaha aren't I wonderful first chapter after a very long break and it's a cliffy. S I hope you like it and remember Katniss is nice and sweeter at the beginning cuz her mood swings definitely gonna be more ferocious especially towards Peeta. So now's you guys need to review and remind me that I still have readers on this story after leaving it for goodness knows how long. **

**Questions? **

**Will answer any and most.**

**Reviews? **

**Accepted gladly.**


	3. All Victors Are Insane

**Okay so this is awkward… I reread the Mockingjay and realized all of my mistakes… I'm so sorry! I have some solutions to fix it but the most important one is the**** rewrite of the end of chapter two! So go reread that then. Because I realized that Madge is dead so Madge couldn't be calling Katniss, so no one calls Katniss… yet.**

**Okay then make sure you reread that cause elsewise this might get a little confusing.**

**Disclaimer: Considering I had to reread Mockingjay on my computer I would say I don't own the Hunger Games. Not even a copy of the book. Sadness.**

Katniss sat at the kitchen table bored out of her mind. Peeta had hidden her bows saying it was too dangerous for her to hunt 'in her state'. What state? He was just afraid she'd kill him.

As if she'd need a bow to kill him she was perfectly capable of killing people with other weapons, she wasn't a victor for nothing.

She went over her options in her head; clean, look at the family book, look at the book she had made for dead tributes, walk amongst the ashes, or bother Peeta.

None of those options seemed particularly entertaining except the last one. So she found her loveable baker man.

Painting. As usual.

She sighed and plopped down next to him.

She pulled a paintbrush from the cup next to his side and brandished it like a weapon, "Tell me where you hid my bows or I'll ruin your painting."

Peeta stared at her then burst out laughing, "Silly, there's no paint on that."

Katniss stared at the paintbrush in horror than flung the thing away as him it had betrayed her, 'I'm boored," she whined lying down on the stone floor and staring at the ceiling.

Peeta laughed at her, "I'm your husband not your entertainer," Katniss pouted and he continued, "Why don't you call one of your friends and tell them about the baby."

Katniss looked confused, "I have friends? Let's see, Madge is dead, Gale I'm not speaking to, Greasy Sae and the rest of the remaining district 12 are all in 11 because someone stared a fire and they still haven't been able to clean up all the coal dust and get new house up, my mother's on a train, I have no desire to talk to Effie, Haymitch left three days ago to get more alcohol so he's probably passed out on a train somewhere, Johanna would probably laugh at me, Beetee is an option but he might start talking about technological things I have no desire to understand, I really don't think I can consider Annie as a friend, and if I told my prep team there would be a camera crew down here by Tuesday. So there, I have no friends."

She smiled up at him smugly as if she had won some unknown contest. He stared back at her for a moment before smiling only slightly evilly.

"What about Delly?" he asked in his most innocent tone.

Katniss sighed, "Urg, Delly's too happy"

Peeta laughed and flicked his paintbrush at her, "Just tell her, she'll just talk your ear of for a little while."

Katniss sighed, "Fine, one condition, you have to let me hunt."

Peeta snorted and nodded his head. Katniss smiled and then walked slowly to the phone in the living room.

Just as she was staring at the phone trying to remember Delly's number when the phone rang. She stared at it with wonder in her eyes. 'Magic!' she thought with excitement stretching her hand cautiously towards the phone.

She picked it up the phone and suspiciously said, "Hello?"

The girl on the other end practically exploded with happiness screaming so loud Katniss had to hold the phone away from her face as Delly continually screamed, "Oh, Katniss I'm getting married!"

Katniss waited for Delly to calm down then cautiously put the phone back to her ear; "Really?" she said carefully, "That's wonderful Delly!"

"Oh thank you Katniss! I'm so excited! I really can't believe it, I mean all the girls in district 12, aside from you of course, well they all of the girls used to fantasize about being Gale's girlfriend or marrying him or something. And now it's happening to me! EEK!"

Delly went on for a while more very excitedly chattering. Katniss managed to tune it out as her brain worked furiously should she tell Delly? If she did the girl would just switch her attention to Katniss and Katniss didn't particularly want that. Besides Delly was marrying Gale and Gale deserved a wedding where he and his wife were the center of attention. Gale deserved someone who calmed him and made him happy.

And Katniss didn't want him distracted, didn't want him doing anything rash and entirely Gale like.

Because she hadn't spoken to him since she had told him she could never be with him.

Because she didn't know if he still had feelings for her.

She assumed he didn't if he was marrying Delly and Delly was inviting her to the wedding.

So Katniss put on her happy attitude and tuned back into the conversation.

"…and we want to have the wedding in district 12. The capitol builders are going down there next week to finish rebuilding and we'll be there the week after that to help and get started on wedding preparations. Oh Katniss it'll be so much fun! Gale says he might even be able to take me hunting and if I do well we could catch the meat for our wedding! Oh! And you and Peeta should come with us! Oh I'm so excited! I can't believe I'm getting married my mother would have been so proud of me! Oh Katniss I have to go now but I'll see you in two weeks or so. Bah-Bye now!"

Go hunting with Gale, Delly, and Peeta. One word, two syllables. Awk-ward

Katniss stared at the phone in her hand as if it were a venomous snake waiting to pounce. Being more than a little paranoid she set the phone on the ground and backed away very slowly. Unbeknownst to her a small mouse had somehow gotten into the house and Buttercup had cornered it in the kitchen.

Just as Katniss was slowly backing away from the phone Buttercup let out a slow menacing hiss. Katniss, not being able to see the cat, mistakenly thought the sound had come from the phone and ran screaming from it.

Peeta jumped at the sound of her screaming and ran to the living room brandishing a paintbrush as a weapon, expecting to find Snow, Coin, a mutt or something just as horrific but instead finding the phone lying on the ground and a satisfied looking Buttercup chomping away on a mouse.

He searched for Katniss finally finding her in the bathroom on the tiled floor, sobbing.

He chuckled at her and she whipped her head around snarling, "Don't laugh at me! I'm going insane and there's a large chance I will kill you!"

He just walked over sat on the edge of the bathtub and patted her head, "Katniss, Katniss, silly Katniss, you're a victor of the Hunger Games you were insane long before now. On top of that you were a rebel symbol, survived a second Hunger Games, marched through a booby-trapped city, watched your sister burn to death as you almost burned to death, and indirectly killed a man from laughter or stampede after you shot the woman you were supposed to be working for.

You were insane looong before I got here."

Katniss glared at him and laid her head back on the floor effectively muffling her next words, "Dmpphy gttng wmrrd oGll."

"What?" Peeta asked scratching the top of his head.

"Delly's getting married to Gale, so I didn't tell her I was pregnant because then her bubble of joy would have burst and formed around me. Oh and apparently their having the wedding here. Well not in this exact location, that be kind of weird a wedding in our bathroom, hahaha awkward laughter, anyway there getting married here and we're not telling them I'm pregnant because then Delly would focus on me and it's her wedding."

Katniss conveniently managed to leave out all and any details involving the fact that Gale might have just a little teensiest little itsy bitsy bit to do with the fact that she wasn't telling Delly she was pregnant.

Because Peeta could guess he wasn't that oblivious and he certainly wasn't stupid.

And even if Peeta wanted to voice any concern on the matter at all he never got the chance.

Because a certain loveable drunkard chose that particular moment to sit straight up in the bathtub saying, "A wedding great! Just what we need to liven things up around here! You two are mighty boring. Oh and I got the champagne." Haymitch swung a large bottle of alcohol around not realizing the ruckus he had caused.

For Peeta, sitting on the edge of the bathtub had screamed and leaped off landing on the floor a mere inches away from Katniss.

Katniss sitting on the floor rather leisurely had yelped and managed to lam her head into the counter.

Haymitch was rather drunk, drunker than usual and offered his bottle first to Peeta, who took a generously large gulp looking quite sick afterwards and then to Katniss who stared at it a while before sighing, "Sorry Haymitch. I can't drink, gots a baby in here," she said lazily rubbing her stomach.

Peeta spluttered and laughed as Haymitch stared as Katniss a rather confused look gracing his face.

"Baby? Babies are bad news, theys agonna gets killed," he slurred quite pointedly nodding at Katniss' stomach.

"Noo Haymitch," Peeta somehow managed to slur out after another drink of alcohol he was beginning to suspect was not champagne "the the Hunger Games are over."

"May the odds be ever in your favor!" the three victors and friends burst out then stared at each other before erupting into laughter.

In between great belly laughs Katniss did not know she had in her she managed to squeak out, "We're all INSANE!"

This had the three staring at each other again before Haymitch shouted, "Well we victors aren't we!"

The three burst into another round of laughter that continued through the night.

Needless to say Katniss' mother found all three passed out on the bathroom floor the next morning, two of them incredibly hung over upon being woken up and the third incredibly cranky upon being woken up.

You can only guess who was who.

**So… good? Bad? Tell me! Please review guys! It's greatly appreciated!**

**So again sorry for the very significant delay I'll try and get the next chapter up in a couple of days.**

**But I'm gonna start another Hunger Games fic soon and it's gonna be pretty different from this one so you should keep your eyes peeled for that.**

**So review!**

**~PsychoBrunette with your daily dose of insanity~**


	4. Talks with and about Mrs Everdeen

**First of all I have to say I'm so sorry it took me so long to get the next chapter up I mean wow. Especially since I had said it would only take a couple of days. I have multiple excuses about school, procrastination, almost zero motivation, yada yada yada. But yesh…**

**Disclaimer: I am not the wonderful author of this wonderful series.**

To say that the week the Capitol builders arrived and began rebuilding District 12, for the second time, after a complete cleanup of the whole district was hectic would be an understatement. To say that Katniss didn't flat out love the chaos would be a lie.

When she was younger, before her father's death, she had loved the quiet and hated noise and chaos. She had loved the quiet, peaceful days spent with her father or the fact that she could sit next to her mother for hours without having to say a word. After her father's death however, Katniss learned that feelings and emotions hid in silence.

The silence in her health was overwhelming. Her mother, unconnected from the world, Prim whose soft whimpers were hidden by the pillow she showed her face into. There were the silent stares of her fellow classmates. The silence that meant no one was helping them. The silence with which Peeta gave her the bread, not explaining his actions at all.

Everyone thought the woods were silent but really they were completely overwhelmed with sound if you knew where to find it. It was a peaceful sort of noise that she linked with both her father and survival.

During her time in the Hunger Games(both years) she learned that silence meant unwanted predators and chaos meant battles, which she was not a part of, which meant one less person until she was home.

During the time she spent in District 13 silence was everywhere, unless she was in the planning room.

During the time she went to battle she learned that silence meant traps and was soon followed by horrifying screams, the one kind of chaos she could do without.

Chaos, noise and clamor she could hide in, she could be herself because with everything else that was going on there wouldn't be as many people looking at her.

Peeta had taught her that feelings weren't all bad and that she could be herself in more than just chaos. But still she chose to be herself only around him, as well as Haymitch and her mother. Peeta taught her that it was okay to rely on other people and to ask for help.

But that didn't mean she was going to ask for help now. She didn't want to ask Peeta for help now because than he might think she still had feelings for Gale. And she didn't have feelings for Gale but sometimes Peeta tended to think that he wasn't good enough for her. When in truth, Katniss thought, it was her who wasn't good enough for him.

Her thoughts on Gale were just reflections on how awkward it would be and longing to see her best friend again. Maybe they could rekindle their friendship. Then Katniss remembered that her unborn child would never meet its aunt and quickly forgot that thought. She broke away from her wishful thoughts and returned to the present.

Currently she was walking through town marveling at the fact that they had actually gotten rid of all the coal dust. And they had built proper showers and industrial washing machines in a base around the mines in an effort to keep from tracking dust into the rest of the district. She watched as Capitol workers put the finishing touches on the new buildings and families began moving back in.

With her mother watching her every move she didn't have any time to think let alone hunt.

Maybe Peeta would be able to help her escape to the forest… hmmm that wasn't a bad idea, he did owe her.

With that thought in mind she turned on her heel and skipped back to her house intent on finding her husband and avoiding her mother.

It so happened that both of them were in the kitchen together having an awkward (in Peeta's opinion) conversation.

"So," Mrs. Everdeen said, trying to be casual but sounding more like a Capitol questioner to Peeta, "you got my daughter pregnant."

Peeta's mind blanked, "Well, haha, yes that's what you're supposed to do when you get married right?" His mother-in-law's stare suggested that he was wrong. "I mean you're Katniss' mother and you had another daughter as well right? So you've obviously done, erm, that before right? And I'm not insinuating anything there. Not that you would think I would it's just you're staring at me and I don't like being stared at and well of course I like when Katniss stares at me because it's like she's trying to find a way into my soul and she doesn't really talk much but I guess that's part of her charm and all. Oh and don't worry about last night, we had no idea that Haymitch was drunk in our bathtub, he doesn't usually make a habit of being drunk in our bathtub, although we did find him passed out in the hall closet once. Haymitch can be quite clingy when he gets really drunk. But I don't think he would be jealous of the baby at all, though he might be upset if we baby proof the kitchen. Drunkards and babies are pretty similar aren't they? So Katniss and I have had plenty of practice on that front. Can you please stop staring at me? No? Well okay then."

With that Peeta pulled his head down to the table, banging it in the process.

Mrs. Everdeen leaned back in her chair, sipped her coffee and smiled to herself. '_Too easy_' she thought.

Katniss chose that moment to make her entrance announcing, "Mother, Peeta and I are going hunting. Don't try to stop us, I'm an adult you have no power over my decisions." She swept up to retrieve her bow and arrows from the hall closet and change into more suitable clothes. Peeta took the time to ensure his mother-in-law that her opinions held some sway over _his _decisions at least.

Katniss grabbed her husband's arm and pulled him out the door.

Mrs. Everdeen smiled again, they made a lovely couple and the Mellark boy was as charming as his father.

**LINEBREAKOFBOLD/CAPSLOCKPOWERMUWHAHAHAHAHAHA HAREADONDEARREADERS!READON!**

Peeta and Katniss returned hours later with a bag full of game, happy smiles and leaves in their hair. Peeta had helped Katniss set up multiple snares, and then watched as she shot birds to her heart's desire completely in her element. He had ended up throwing some leaves at her, which resulted in her throwing some back which resulted in him tackling her and then the two of them rolling down a hill into a large pile of leaves.

They were shocked when they saw Haymitch sitting on the couch next to Mrs. Everdeen, clean and sober. And the two were _laughing_. About what they didn't know until the name Maysilee was whispered.

Katniss looks at Peeta and pulls him up the stairs. When they reach their bedroom they go inside and she shuts the door.

"I always forget that they're connected, even in that small way," Katniss mutters sinking onto the floor with her arms pulled around her knees.

"That's how you survive the death of people you love, you remember them with other people who loved them," Peeta murmurs, rubbing her back and trying to be soothing.

But Katniss jerks her head up, face filled with rage, "Really you share memories with the people who loved them? Then why didn't she do that when my father died? Why did she shut herself away and almost let us starve to death? Why is it that we can't say his name without her freezing up? Why is it that I can't mention Prim without her looking away and making some excuse? Why is it that she went away to some other district and shut herself off when I needed her here more than I ever needed her before? Why is it that my mother wasn't the one who saved me from myself but the boy that I had never admitted to loving until he showed up in my backyard and helped me put the pieces of myself back together again? Why is it that she has never once tried to make my nightmares away but you do so without even trying?" By this point tears were streaming down Katniss' face and her voice was rising with every word.

Peeta held her tighter and began rocking back and forth, "Maybe because she doesn't know how to love you anymore. Maybe after she closed up she forgot. I love you Katniss and I know your mother loves you too. She just doesn't know how, you're so different from her."

Katniss continued to cry into his shirt and he slowly and carefully picked her up and gently set her down on their bed, removing her shoes and socks before covering her with the soft blanket. He kissed her wet cheeks and her forehead. Peeta laid down next to her, stroking her hair as they both fell asleep.

And the last thing Katniss thought before she fell asleep completely was that maybe the quiet wasn't so bad when you shared it with someone you loved.

**And Done! Sorry it's short but I think it ends in a good place. **

**I would just like to share that my computer doesn't believe that Katniss is a real word and some of the top suggestions are fatness, catnips and mantis. Hehe, although I can see Katniss as a praying mantis.**

**And just for advance warning there will be no . They were probably just sitting awkwardly on the couch waiting for Katniss and Peeta and started offering up random conversation topics and eventually they started talking about Maysilee. That was just used to put Katniss' feelings on the table. **

**So yesh read and review!**

**BYES!**


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